T-Mobile Prompts Ad Watchdog to Admonish Sprint for Its Ads

Sprint should shed the superlatives for its wireless network in its ads, the National Advertising Division (NAD), an industry self-regulatory council, declared in a statement on Tuesday. The NAD recommended the wireless carrier drop the terms "brand new," "all-new" and "America's Newest," as well customer satisfaction claims, from its marketing.

The decision came after T-Mobile, Sprint's boisterous rival, challenged the advertising claims.

"We are pleased the NAD has acknowledged the many substantial technological improvements we have made to our network, which we continue to make. We will take the NAD's recommendations into consideration," said a Sprint spokeswoman.

Sprint is several years into an expensive network overhaul, which is partially responsible for its considerable customer loss. But the NAD says the network upgrade does not justify the descriptor "newest." It went on:

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Mark Bergen

Mark Bergen covers mobile carriers, devices and advertising out of New York City. Earlier, he reported on technology and business from India for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and various publications.